As Scotts Valley continues to clean up after Saturday's rare tornado, the bills are starting to pile up.
The city council was poised to declare a local state of emergency at its meeting Wednesday night to begin the process of making and paying for repairs.
"I declared an emergency as part of the tornado in order to help the city recover and seek state assistance in order to help pay for that recovery cost," Scotts Valley City Manager Mali LaGoe said. "So tonight we’ll be asking the city council to ratify that emergency declaration."
The EF1 tornado, with swirling 90 mph winds, flipped over vehicles, knocked down street poles and left five people injured.
"Had this tornado hit 500 feet in any other direction, our shopping centers were fully packed with people at the time," Scotts Valley Vice Mayor Derek Timm said. "Had it just hit one of those centers, this could have been a horrific tragedy. So the fact it landed where it did and there were so few injuries is really kind of a miracle."
The most obvious repairs include Scotts Valley Middle School, where a large tree came down on its science wing. Contractors have also been busy resurrecting traffic lights.
But the city is still making repairs from past disasters, such as major roads still closed after massive mudslides as well damage from the CZU fire several years back.
All in all, the estimated damage is around $100,000 to $150,000.
“I think we got off lucky," LaGoe said. "As unfortunate as it was for the people who were in those cars and had that scary experience of their car flipping over, I’m just so grateful that the tornado didn’t hit a store full of people or a mobile home park or another more vulnerable part of our community."
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The city is still waiting for $2 million from last year's necessary storm repairs. If approved, the city manager said the wait for the new funds could take just as long.
